ScrewItLetsDoIt

One of my big goals in life is that, like captain Scott, I have always wanted to live life to the full. So, in 1984, when I was asked to sponsor a powerboat to win the Blue Riband for Britain, I agreed at once. The Blue Riband is a prize for the fastest ocean crossing form America to Ireland. I said I'd join the crew and trained hard. There was only one slight hitch. Joan and I were due to have a baby and I had promised her that I would be there for the birth. Then we were told that the weather was just right for the record attempt. I would let down the team if I didn’t go.

I asked Joan,’ What shall I do?’

‘Just do it - go,' she said. 'The baby's not due for two weeks. You’ll be back before then.'

We set off, crashing across the waves in Virgin Atlantic Challenger. At the end of the first day, I got the news that my son, Sam had been born. We cracked open the champagne and kept going. The prize for the fastest crossing ever was within our grasp until we hit a huge storm off Ireland. Sixty miles from the end, we were hit by a giant wave. The hull split and we sank.

'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!'

We were in the sea in the middle of storm, in a life raft. A boat on its way to America saved us. We had failed in our first attempt to win the blue Riband, but we didn’t give in. Six years later, I was back with virgin Atlantic challenger II. Things were going well until we found that sea water was getting into our fuel tanks. The engines stopped. We spent hours cleaning the tanks and trying to start engines. It seemed hopeless. The others at last said we had to give up. They said it was over. But I knew it was our last try. If we didn't do it now, we would never do it. I had to persuade them not to give in. I said, 'Come on, we’ve got to do it. Let's try.'

We were all done in. Our eyeballs were red and tired. We were all seasick. We hated the boat. We hated the sea. We wanted to sleep for a week.

'We've to go on,' I yelled.

'All right,' I agreed. ' We’ll give it one last shot.'

Somehow we started the engines and got going again. It seemed hopeless. We were so far behind that there seemed little point in trying. But we kept on going. We made up time. In the end we beat the record by just two hours and

nine minutes - but we did it. The lesson I learned from that and that I live by is to keep trying and to never give up.

The day after we won the Blue Riband, a Swede named Per Lindstrand asked me to cross Atlantic again - in a hot air balloon.

I thought my old hero, Captain Scott. He had flown in a balloon over the South Pole. I had never been in a balloon before. No one had ever flown that far in a balloon before. It was mad. It was too risky. By then, my companies were dealing in hundreds of millions of pounds. What would happen if I died?

There were many problems. But I can't resist a challenge and the chance to try something new. I said, 'Screw it, let's do it!'

But first I asked Per, 'Do you have any children?'

'Yes he said. 'I've got two.'

That was good enough for me - if he would take the challenge, so would I. I shook his hand and said I would join him.

I always tell people that if they want to do anything well, they must plan and prepare. So I went to Spain with per and learned to fly in a

balloon. I didn't know it then, but those lessons saved my life.

One of the things I learnt was that each hotair balloon carries fuel, which is burnt to heat the air in the balloon. Hot air rises and so does the balloon. When the fuel is not burnt, the air cools and the balloon drops lower in the sky. When flying a hot air balloon, the pilot must heat or cool the air so that the balloon is at the right level to catch the wind going in the direction the balloon needs to go.

The winds and the jet stream blow from America to Europe. We left from America and 29 hours later, we were over Ireland. We were the first to cross the Atlantic in a hot-air balloon. There was only one problem - how to land. We had some full fuel tanks left and it was too dangerous to land with them. We might crash and burn. We chose to comedown low and drop the tanks in a field. We reduced the flame in the balloon and came down low. We cut the tranks free. But then we were too light. We bounced across a field and shot up into the sky, out of control.

'Let's come down on the beach, where we won't hurt people,' Per said.

We flew into thick fog and missed the beach. The sea looked very black and stormy. If we landed in it with balloon, we could drown. I struggled into my life jacket. Suddenly, from around 56 feet up, Per jumped into the icy sea without his weight, the balloon shot up too high for me to jump. I was on my own.

I floated higher and higher into the clouds. The winds took me north, towards Scotland. I was alone, flying in the biggest balloon ever built. I had about an hour of fuel left. When it went, I would fall into the sea. I tried the radio. It was dead. I didn't know what to do. I could jump out in my parachute or stay out. I wrote in my notebook,' Joan, Holly, Sam, I love you.'

'While I am alive, I can still do something,' I said to myself. 'Something will turn up.' Something did. As the balloon drifted down towards the grey sea, I came out of the clouds and saw a helicopter. It was searching for me! I waved and the crew waved back. I was safe.

Close to the waves, I jumped into the sea, away from the balloon. Without my weight, it flew up and out of sight. The helicopter fished me out of the icy water. I asked about Per, but they had thought he was with me. He had been

in the sea for hours. We had to find him quickly. I told them where e would be and he was rescued just before he froze to death.

The whole trip was an amazing experience. I learned many lessons: not just if you want to do something, just do it, but also to prepare well, have faith in yourself, help each other, never give up.

All of these lessons can be used in life. You don't have to run a big business, fly in a balloon, or break records in a boat to learn from and use the lessons I learned. Your goal can be small. Student magazine was very small at first. I sold space in it from a payphone at school because I believed I could and would do it. If something is what you really want to do, just do it. Whatever your goal is you will never succeed unless you let go of your fears and fly.

1.HAVE FUN

Have Fun, Work Hard and Money Will Come Don’t Waste Time – Grab Your Chances Have a Positive Outlook On Life

When it’s Not Fun, Move On

I DON’T DENY THAT I have done well and had success. It has even been said that I turn hat I touch into gold. People ask me what my secret is. How do I make money? What they really want to know is - how can they make money? Everyone wants to be a millionaire.

I always tell them the same thing. I have no secret. There are no rules to follow in business. I just work hard and, as I always have done, believe I can do it. Most of all, though, I try to have fun.

When I was about to go around the world in a hot-air balloon in 1997 I knew that it was very risky. I might not return. Before I left, I wrote a

letter to my children, Sam and Holly. In it, I said, 'Live life to the full. Enjoy every minute of it. Love and look after mum.'

Those words sum up what I believe in. Don't waste time. Have fun. Love your family.

Notice that making money isn't in that

list.

I didn’t set out to be rich. The fun and the challenge in life were what I wanted - and still do. I don’t deny that money is important. We are not caveman and woman. We can't live just on roots and berries. We live in an era when we must have some money to survive. I once said I only need one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner a day. And I still live by those words. I never went into business to make money - but I have found that, if I have fun, the money will come. I often ask myself, is my work fun and does it make me happy? I believe that the answer to that matters more than fame or fortune. If something stops being fun, I ask why? If I can't fix it, I stop doing it.

You might ask, how do I know that fun will lead to money? Of course it doesn't always happen. I have had my downs as well as ups. But on the whole I have been very lucky. For

almost as long as I remember, I have had fun and I've made money.

My very first business lessons weren’t success, but I learned from them. My first money-making scheme was when I was about nine years old. One Easter I came up with a great plan. I would grow Christmas trees. I asked my best friend, Nik Powell, to help me plan 400 seeds in our field at home. We worked hard but also enjoyed ourselves. We enjoyed messing about on the farm. All we had to do was wait for the seeds to turn into Christmas trees. It would take Eighteen months. The first thing I had to learn was how to use figures. I was not good at sums at school. On paper, they made no sense. But as I planned our Christmas tree business, I used real sums that did make sense. The bag of seeds cost just £5 and we would sell each tree for £2. We would make £795, which was worth waiting for. Even at an early age I planned long term and learned to wait for reward.

My second lesson was that money doesn't grow on trees! Sadly, rabbits ate all the seedlings. We got some revenge, though. I'm sorry to say we had fun shooting the rabbits.

We sold them for shilling each to the local butcher. Overall, we did make a small profit and all our friends had rabbit pie. We all gained something.

You never know what you will find on a sunny beach . . . On holiday, I found my very own desert island and an airline. In 1976 I was working and building up Virgin Music. Mike oldfield had already been our first big success with tubular bells in 1973. We also signed up the Sex Pistols so things were on the up. We were very busy but we all also had a great deal of fun People said things like Branson’s lucky devil’ to come across a huge hit like Tubular bells. Yes, it was a lucky break, but we grabbed it. It had been taken to every other record company. They had turned it down. But we heard it and believed in it. We knew it would happen. Making it work was hard for a bunch of kids like us, though. We had to find the money. We had to push it to the top. We had to think differently. We asked john peel to play the entire album on his show and he did. It had never been done before. And it worked. Sales took off.